Thursday, DECEMBER 4, 2025 |
Photo – Lot at 2nd & School Streets in Hanna – By Matt Copeland Bigfoot99
Financial issues have further delayed construction of a new SCWEMS ambulance barn in Hanna.
South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Services, SCWEMS, has been working to build a structure of its own to house its northern Carbon County ambulance fleet. Right now, the ambulances are stored at the Hanna Fire Station, which lacks the space needed to properly maintain the vehicles.
In 2022, the SCWEMS Joint Powers Board received a $50,000 American Rescue Plan Act grant from the Wyoming State Loan and Investment Board to cover design and survey costs for the new ambulance barn.
Earlier this year, officials from Carbon County School District Number Two offered SCWEMS a parcel of land at 2nd and School Streets, once occupied by the Hanna Elementary School. Subsidences, or underground mine collapses, beneath the site forced the district to demolish the building and construct a new school two blocks north. Several years later, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Abandoned Mine Lands Division carried out extensive grouting operations in the area, ensuring the site is safe for construction.
School District Two still owns the vacant property where the elementary school once stood. The board voted to subdivide the site, deeding a large parcel on the north end to SCWEMS for the proposed ambulance barn.
In August of 2024, the Town of Hanna amended its ordinances to allow the ambulance barn to be located on the school district’s land.
Despite the earlier progress, work on the new Hanna ambulance barn has stalled. During the October 20th South Central Wyoming EMS Joint Powers Board meeting, it was mentioned that the medical transport service has hired Engineering Associates to draft blueprints for the proposed facility. Meeting minutes indicate that Engineering Associates Saratoga Office Manager Craig Kopasz was originally assigned the task of surveying the land and designing the building. Kopasz is said to have estimated a total of $50,000 for the blueprints and survey.
For reasons not yet clear, Engineering Associates recently assigned a new engineer to the Hanna ambulance barn project.
According to the October 20th SCWEMS Board minutes, the new engineer is insisting the project be restarted from scratch, with a complete site survey and design work, at a cost of $90,000. The minutes also state that the unnamed engineer is requesting an additional $87,000 to help SCWEMS find and apply for grants to fund the work.
SCWEMS has already used $20,000 of its $50,000 ARPA grant to pay Engineering Associates for a site survey, leaving only $30,000. The SCWEMS Board has until December 31st, 2026, to use the remaining grant money or it will revert to the state.
SCWEMS Joint Powers Board Vice Chairman Carl Bickel, a Hanna resident, said he would bring the Board’s concerns to the Hanna Town Council at its next meeting. However, Bickel was out of town on November 12th and did not attend. The governing body briefly discussed the SCWEMS report, but it did not specifically address the ambulance barn.
The Hanna Town Council meeting may revisit the issue at its December 9th meeting.
